


On a Whim

by gloriousrumpoflife



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: M/M, sorry if you have an arm-kissing kink b/c arms get kissed but no genitalia gets touched, spoilers for jae-ha's past, spoilers for zeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 08:02:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3521639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloriousrumpoflife/pseuds/gloriousrumpoflife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written for ryoukuhaku week.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On a Whim

For as long as he could remember, Kija had been taught everything the Hakuryuu village knew about the dragons. The history stretched as far back as the first White Dragon, who gathered wayfarers and refugees to his settlement in the foggy mountains. He had told them, over campfires and dinners, many a story about his beloved master, the beautiful, peaceful King Hiryuu, as well as tales of his dragon brothers. Seiryuu, with eyes that could see into far distances. Ouryuu, with a body that could not be harmed. Ryoukyuryuu, with a foot that could take him far into the skies. For reasons unknown to Kija, neither their names nor their homes had made it into his lessons. Maybe they had simply been lost in the thousands of years since Hiryuu’s reign. Until Kija turned twenty, though, he did not care about those records. He did not worry himself about the other dragons. All he did was wait, day in and day out, for the return of his master. Surely, he had thought, there was no reason to think of his brethren and pray for their well-being. There was no way the people of their villages could have forgotten the grandeur of the dragons. Seiryuu, Ouryuu, and Ryoukuryuu must be as well cared for as Kija was.

But then he had turned twenty years old. His master had come for him just weeks later, and he had begun searching for his brothers, following wherever their lights led him. He had discovered during his travels just how wrong he had been.

Seiryuu hid his eyes, both to protect his villagers, and to protect himself. He barely spoke and he never removed his mask. He was a scarred boy, a broken dragon, who deserved so much better.

Ryoukuryuu despised his village so much that he had flown away. He ran from his destiny, preaching free will like no other. Throughout childhood, he had been chained. Whenever he spoke of the past or his predecessor – without making a sick joke of it – a bittersweet (more bitter than sweet) expression would appear.

Then there was Ouryuu, cursed by his own godly blood. He had lived thousands of years, carrying the hearts of the originals. He had watched his loved ones die, while he was never allowed to return to the heavens. Even though he smiled, laughed, never once seemed bothered by his long past, Kija was always worried. Had it been wrong of him to have had such a happy life? Had it been right of him to have thought of destiny as a gracious thing? Had he, with all his talk of the dragons’ duties, been nothing but a harsh reminder to his friends?

So, Kija made it a point to not talk about the past. Not a single person in his group had the same happiness he did, particularly in the case of the dragons. It was wrong of him to remind them, to make his loved ones hurt.

Kija was not perfect, though. In the end, he was still human.

On a night when he was not perfect, when his curiosity was stronger than his will was iron, he asked. Shinah was on lookout duty, while Zeno and Hak were too restless to sleep, so the only ones inside the large tent were Jae-ha and Kija. The former sat atop his cot, reading some romance novel he had picked up in the last town (Hak was convinced it was smut). The latter was curled up under his blanket, fighting the cold night air. Kija looked up at his—well, he wasn’t exactly married to Jae-ha (it had only been a few weeks since he had confessed!), and the word lover inferred a sexual aspect that Kija was most certainly _not_ about to engage in, so Jae-ha was, for the sake of simplicity, his—something (perhaps partner in courtship?). He reached out his dragon hand and placed it on Jae-ha’s knee. Jae-ha quickly responded by placing down his book, picking up Kija’s hand, and kissing a cluster of scales on his index finger.

Heat rushed through Kija’s body, flipping his stomach with its speed and frightening his heart. Honestly, he had expected Jae-ha’s expressions of love to be much larger, more dramatic. Which they were, actually, as indicated by his tendency to deliver sudden, very deep kisses to Kija in the mornings, and how he constantly clung to Kija whenever he spotted admiring ladies. But, more often than not, Jae-ha expressed adoration in the tiniest of gestures, in ways Kija never thought were possible for a man who flirted with every attractive person he saw. The small kisses, the simple yet lingering touches, the very way he looked at him—they all remade Kija’s mind to mere mush.

“Stop it…” he mumbled, burying half his face into his pillow. “I have something important to talk to you about.”

“Oh?” Jae-ha responded. Unsurprisingly, he pushed back Kija’s sleeve, revealing all the ivory scales up to just past his elbow. They actually reached to a little below his shoulder, but that little fact was of no importance as Jae-ha began to kiss Kija’s arm, starting from his palm and going down. “What’s so important?”

A strangled scream escaped Kija. “Y-You—!” He struggled to take his arm back, trying his best to ignore how much he _really_ liked the affection, but Jae-ha merely held his wrist and elbow, therefore ruining all of Kija’s efforts. “You insolent man!” Of course, he could use his full strength to escape Jae-ha’s grip, but then he might accidentally hurt the man. “This is a serious matter I wish to speak with you over, so would you please—”

His reluctance to accidentally hurt his partner in courtship (?) suddenly dissipated when Jae-ha began to utter small moans, as though being the one to kiss Kija’s dragon arm was the utmost of pleasures. Though it was hard to see, there was also a tiny smile on his lips, one both devilish and seductive. All the breath escaped Kija’s lungs, and his brain gave up on thinking, leaving his hear to rush to keep him alive. And, oh, did it run, especially when Jae-ha’s lips met the inside of his elbow.

Kija started. The sudden movement, thankfully, was enough to make Jae-ha hold off on his attack. He lifted his lips from Kija’s scales and looked at him, eyes wide. Kija stared back at him, chest heaving as he tried to catch what was left of his breath. After a long bout of silence, one which breached into awkwardness, Jae-ha finally muttered, “Are you sensitive there?”

Kija averted his eyes. He jerked his arm. Luckily for him, Jae-ha released it. “A-a…” Kija took a deep breath, pulled his sleeve back up, then exhaled slowly. Remain calm. “Apparently…”

He was sure Jae-ha smiled deviously at his answer. It was like him, of course, to find amusement in the torment of others. However, when Kija eventually gained the courage to glance at him, he discovered Jae-ha hiding his face behind his hands, hints of red upon the tips of his ears.

Kija marveled at the sight. Jae-ha, the most shameless flirt he had ever met, was flustered. _He_ , Jae-ha, was _embarrassed_. If appearance could be trusted, he might just be even more rattled than Kija was. Kija reached out his left hand and gripped Jae-ha’s shoulder. He had to be sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him.

“Did that embarrass you?”

Jae-ha’s hands flew from his face. “Of course not!” he shouted. But it was terribly obvious that he was, in fact, incredibly embarrassed, if his red face and trembling voice were anything to go by.

Kija chuckled. It was so easy, in moments like these, to remember what made him fall for Jae-ha in the first place. “It’s nice to know you still have a sense of shame.”

Jae-ha’s eyebrows immediately scrunched together. “Since when did you think I lost it?” he demanded.

Kija snickered as he pulled his blanket over his shoulders. He could easily say, _when you started moaning into my arm_ , but that was much too embarrassing. He still had some tact, notwithstanding his relationship with a pervert! At a loss for a proper reply, then, Kija held out his right hand. This time, Jae-ha responded appropriately. He lay down on his cot and slipped under his blanket, then reached out his left hand to take Kija’s right. He intertwined their fingers and brought their connected hands to rest on the ground between them. Kija smiled, so widely, so happily, at the tiny gesture.

Comfortable silence passed between them. Kija closed his eyes, content to fall asleep like this. But as he began to approach slumber, Jae-ha spoke up.

“So what was the important thing you wanted to talk to me about?”

Kija’s eyes snapped open. Oh, right. That. With a hum, he brushed his thumb along the base of Jae-ha’s index finger. “It was nothing…” he lied. After that little fiasco, he had regained his inhibition. It would be truly inappropriate of him to ask such a sensitive question.

“You didn’t treat it like it was nothing. Tell me.”

Kija rubbed his lips together for a while. When Jae-ha prompted him again, he sighed and relinquished. “I wanted to ask you about your predecessor.”

Jae-ha made no move. One look at his shoulders, though, told Kija that he was tense.

“It is a sensitive subject, so you do not have to—”

“No,” Jae-ha interrupted. “You want to know, so ask.”

“…Okay,” Kija muttered.

Jae-ha rolled onto his back, switching his left hand for his right. His grip on Kija’s own right hand was tight, as though he wished to squeeze the dragon life from Kija’s scales. In the silence created by healing wounds, Kija brought their connected hands to his lips, and kissed Jae-ha’s knuckles.

Jae-ha relaxed. Kija smiled.

“When I was younger,” Kija began, “I used to try to sense the presence of the dragons. It was for practice, and also because I was curious when I noticed that there were two green lights and two blue lights. There was only one yellow, just like I was probably the only white. I was six years old when the blue lights became one, and a year later, there was only one green. I did the math recently and realized you were twelve when your predecessor passed on.” For good measure, Kija kissed Jae-ha’s knuckles again, and he kept his lips to his skin as he continued speaking. “I was wondering what it was like for you, since you’re the only one in the group who has more than a few memories of his predecessor.”

Jae-ha was silent for a long time. Kija kept the kisses coming, prolonging each and every one he gave, until his partner in courtship (yes, he was going to keep that name) answered. “You know the reason for the scars on your back,” Jae-ha commented.

Kija nodded. “They are my father’s regret for not being able to serve his master.”

“It was that. For twelve years.”

Kija’s lips tightened into a frown. He knew it was wrong of him to ask. He opened his mouth to apologize, to let Jae-ha bury his memories again. But Jae-ha spoke before he could.

“I hated him. I knew he feared death, and I was sure our destinies had cursed us to live in his kind of misery forever. But when he hit me, I hated him more than any damn destiny.” Jae-ha sighed and brushed his bangs from his face. Kija crawled over to Jae-ha’s cot, blanket and pillow in tow. “It wasn’t until he sacrificed himself so I could escape that I ever considered forgiving him.”

Jae-ha slid over and rolled onto his side, making room for Kija. The white dragon lay down and made himself comfortable before he slipped an arm over Jae-ha’s waist. “Did you forgive him.”

Jae-ha smiled bittersweetly (more sweetly than bitter) and tucked some of Kija’s bangs behind his ear. He cupped Kija’s cheek, to which Kija responded with a kiss to the base of his palm. “I’m afraid I’m not as resolute as you are,” Jae-ha replied. He pressed his lips to Kija’s forehead, then to the bridge of his nose. “But I think if you stick by me long enough, I may learn to be.”

Kija smiled. “Then I shall stay by you for as long as you so need.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in a journal with Ryan Gosling's face on the cover. It was great.
> 
> Also, hiya ryouhaku week!! sorry I didn't submit anything for yesterday. I was in the middle of writing a oneshot for the "Arguing" prompt, but then my internet cut out & all motivation was lost. I'll probably be absent for the next few days, as well, since Mom & I are going on a trip for Spring Break. I'll still be writing for the prompts, but they'll probably all be posted at random intervals next week. Haha, oops.
> 
> Feedback is appreciated. *blows kisses to everyone*


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